Tuesday Keynote: Laurie Santos

Dr. Laurie Santos is a psychologist, the Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon Professor of Psychology at Yale University, and host of The Happiness Lab podcast where she makes the case that humans are drastically wrong about what makes us happy and often do the exact opposite of what will make our lives better. She is an expert on human cognition, its origins, and the evolutionary biases that influence our all-too imperfect life choices. Dr. Santos has been featured in numerous news outlets including  NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, NPR, CNN, the New York Times, GQ magazine, The Oprah Magazine, and Slate.   A winner of numerous awards both for her science and teaching, Dr. Santos has been recognized by institutions such as Yale and the American Psychological Association. She has been featured as one of Popular Science’s “Brilliant 10” and was named TIME's “Leading Campus Celebrity.”  

Dr. Santos will speak to how we are biologically programmed to be deeply influenced by other people, and to repeat our mistakes. Using evidence from the animal kingdom to help explain our sometimes illogical behaviors, she will provide advice on how to engage our uniquely human faculties to counteract evolution and lead better lives.